1891.] Are Acquired Variations Inherited ? - 201 
organism; in the multicellular organisms the source of variability 
becomes restricted to the germ-cells, and the proximate or 
secondary origin of variations is in the union of the diverse 
characteristics contained in the germ-plasms of the two sexes. 
This view as to the primordial origin of variations does not seem 
to me to enter directly into the problem we are discussing, 
although it is one of the legitimate conclusions from his premises. 
But I would like to call attention to one important point, viz., that 
it involves the operation of Lamarck’s principle of the transmis- 
sion of adaptive reactions to environment ™ in the unicellular, and 
therefore to some degree in the lower multicellular, organisms. 
I think it can be shown that Lamarck’s principle would be 
highly advantageous to every organism by transmitting direct 
adaptations (see Query 4); if this be the case, every step in the 
gradual loss of this principle by the isolation of the germ- 
plasma would have been disadvantageous. Therefore, if Selec- 
tion was constantly acting, as Weismann supposes, it would have 
preserved this very principle. This is, of course, in the nature of 
pure speculation ; but turning this supposed enormous power of 
Selection to the service of Lamarckism, we can conceive how the 
extremely complex correlation between functional changes in the 
somatic and germ-cells, which is an essential part of the La- 
marckian theory, may have had its beginnings in these transi- 
tional organisms. 
The question of the present or proximate origin of variations 
does, however, bear directly upon these diverse principles : 
(a) All observers must agree that sexual reproduction is one 
of the endless sources of indefinite variations.” Weismann’s 
theory offers a beautiful idea of the modus operandi, and accords 
thoroughly with Galton’s researches. Such variations originate 
in the germ-cells; there is no reason why we should trace them 
to the somatic cells. 
fully elaborated in Spencer's z Principles 
24 Thisis, of course, no newidea. It was most P 
former is by simple cell division; the 
of Biology.” The mode of transmission in the . 
„principle of the continuity of original and acquired characters 1S the same. 
sé ts ae Eok 1 tation isi st important, but not the 
fi -o -nine Metaphyta and Metazoa in a state of variability. Nature, Feb, 
only factor which phy 
6th, 1890, p. 322. (In answer to Prof. Vines.) 
